Wow, I wish this had been available a few months ago when I was getting into Postgres for the first time on Gentoo. Anyway, thanks!

One nitpick:
In the USE flag section this line:

Quote:

nls If this option is enabled, PostgreSQL can utilized translated strings for non-English speaking users.

Should be:

Quote:

nls If this option is enabled, PostgreSQL can utilize translated strings for non-English speaking users.

_________________No guilt in life, no fear in death
this is the power of Christ in me
From lifes first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
-- Newsboys, "In Christ Alone", "Adoration: The Worship Album"

First off, I wouldnt start off the introduction with a comparison / rip on MySQL. I agree with you 100% of course, but I'd take a line from this instead.

Another thing, I would change this:

"To start out, let's create a test database by using the createdb command. We'll also pass along the -U option to set the user (it defaults to the current user name if you don't), ..."

I'd change "the current user name" part to something like "the current user logged in (root, for example)." Something along those lines to distinguish that you're talking about system users, not psql users.

Last thing, it might be kind of nice to throw in some environment variables that can be set, such as PG_USER, so I don't have to pass -U each time.

You've got the exact same issues as your Mysql How-to, near total lack of Gentoo specific info.

Things that would actually fix user probems before they have them:

1. Discussion of config files. /var/lib/postgressql/pg_hba.conf and /etc/conf.d/postgresql should be mentioned and the user might need to touch these to get what they want.

2. Bound to localhost by default. Gentoo default is to bind database to localhost by default. THe guide should explain that and how to change. If you're feeling like an overachiever you can even discuss IP and username ACL's

3. How to delete the database and start from scratch. Every user screws up their db and want to start from scratch or at least from a point where they can get back into their database.

There are a thousand plus places I can go to learn how to insert into Postgres and hardly any that has reliable Gentoo specific info about how Postgres was installed, where the config files are, and some of the default settings. The Gentoo docs should cover the Gentoo specific cases before doing anything else.

After setting up all those users and passwords, I was suprised to find that the database would accept my connections and changes no matter what password I gave. After some other research I found out why : the "trust" option in pg_hba.conf. I don't know if want to mention that in your guide or not.

Although it's not as severe as with MySQL, but an upgrade guide for Postgres would be very helpful. Having information regarding that will save many of us novice Postgres users a little time from scrounging through the forums and on google. _________________"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds." - Albert Einstein

Although it's not as severe as with MySQL, but an upgrade guide for Postgres would be very helpful. Having information regarding that will save many of us novice Postgres users a little time from scrounging through the forums and on google.

heh. Obviously you've never tried to update from Postgres 7.2 to 7.4. Or from 7.4 to 8.0. Bloody nightmare if you've got databases of any complexity. On top of all that Postgres can not replicate between different versions so database updates of Postgres always require extensive downtime rather than the Mysql way of updating a slave and then promoting it to master. Some downtime is required, but you're not waiting for 40 minute imports of your database dumps to finish.

I'd say there definitely needs to be a Postgres update guide even though things have been relatively calm in the 8.0+ versions.